


Social Studies

by ParadifeLoft



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Cultural evolution through time I guess?, Gen, Gender Identity, Nonbinary Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-01
Updated: 2016-04-01
Packaged: 2018-05-30 15:10:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6429430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParadifeLoft/pseuds/ParadifeLoft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ancient sith culture, as it turns out, is full of all sorts of interesting and occasionally even non-lethal interpersonal phenomena. Not that it's always easy to convey.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Social Studies

“It’s a bit like having a big sister again, y’know?”

Meshurat’s lips quirked in what could almost be described as a faint smile, but it disappeared quickly. Ah well, they were working on it. “We’re the same age, Vette,” she said, and okay, Vette couldn’t help but lift a tattooed eyebrow at that along with the more natural flick of her lekku that of course wouldn’t have been understood by humans. Ridiculous overly literal Sith, as if the point was about _age_ and not the way they acted with each other.

Though… she _had_ mentioned being an only child at one point, in passing, hadn’t she. So maybe she wouldn’t know. Vette supposed she should ask about it later.

But now, Meshurat had cocked her head, and folded her arms in front of her like she had something else to say. Vette put away her sarcasm face and looked back at her.

“It occurs to me when you say _sister_ – you _are_ aware I’m not a woman, yes?”

Well, of all the things she’d been expecting Meshurat to say, that wasn’t one of them. Vette blinked. “Uh, sorry – what?”

She’d met a fair number of species where you really couldn’t assume, or where if you did based on humanoid standards you’d either get screeched at or become a laughingstock, but – with humans it seemed more or less safe to assume, most of the time. Right? And she didn’t think the Empire was much different from the Republic in that regard, maybe even better, because for all their faults the Sith were ahead of just about every game you could imagine when it came to biological alteration techniques. So what was Meshurat –

“Ah, apparently not. I suppose I shouldn’t have assumed you’d be familiar with old Sith caste markers,” Meshurat replied, before Vette could ask any more specific questions, or even _why would you think I’d be familiar with old Sith caste markers??_ – and then with an upward head-tilt, gave Vette a good view of the intricately-styled twin neck tattoos that she’d previously filed under simply “weird Sith aesthetics”.

“Do you see these?” Meshurat said, pointing with a finger at the two black columns, each filled with tiny, detailed motifs that reminded Vette of the tombs on Korriban. As though there could be any doubt what Meshurat was referring to. “This tattoo was – is – the bodily indicator of a warrior-caste sith whose social expectations and… role in the community, as it were, includes solely martial-spiritual aspects, and not familial ones. _Khevess massassi_ , is the Sith term. It used to be a much more… formalized position, prior to the expansion of the Empire. Though if you want a history lesson you should find somebody else.”

Well that seemed… clear as Dromund Kaas mud. Vette wasn’t quite sure what the relevance of Sith caste history had to do with Meshurat _now_ , but. Screwing up her face trying to wrangle the two together, she hazarded – “So this is… some sort of ritual role your parents decided for you when you were born?”

A shake of the Sith Lord’s head, though not an angry one – Vette suspected Meshurat was having some amount of difficult explaining just as Vette was in understanding. “It is something freely chosen as one grows,” Meshurat corrected. “The way you choose a Sphere to serve, or a lightsaber form. And it’s only allowed to full Sith regardless; my mother would not have been allowed to give me the mark before I had passed my Trials.”

O…kay. “So what does this have to do with you not being a woman?”

Meshurat’s lips pressed together, and little brow furrows appeared above the bone mask. Several moments of silence passed by. “Gender is… something that lives in the full spectrum of social relationships and roles in society,” the halting explanation began. “Khevess do not take part in the building of familial lines, or creating households or armies or sacred places. We are for the needs of the Empire as an entity alone, not… the needs of its specific people. This would all make much more sense in the context of the sith two thousand years ago, of course.”

Hm. Vette thought she could see what the Sith was getting at, though that last comment was probably right on the nose. “You’re saying that since society doesn’t have a gender, and you’re concerned with that instead of all the things that men and women do _in_ society, that makes you not a man or a woman either?” She’d probably botched it, but oh well.

“I suppose so. More or less.”

Huh. Weird, to Vette’s eyes, but when it came to the Sith Lord, there was definitely weirder. “So what should I call you then? Was saying _sister_ a no-go?”

“ _Sister_ is fine,” Meshurat replied, with a hand gesture to one side like sorting things into imaginary boxes. “That’s not a distinction of social role. And not used very often in Sith anyway, have you noticed? We generally just write _sibling_. But _woman_ is incorrect, which was the whole point of this… I suppose I’ll have to think of a list, if you don’t already know. Or just mention it when it comes up. Doing this in Basic is bizarre.”

Vette gave a short laugh. “You’re telling me. Just hope I never have to talk about you in Ryl – we’ve got masculine/feminine distinctions all over the grammar! Give me a headache so bad it’ll get into my lekku.”

That actually did get a smile, too. “Lekku-headaches are certainly something we should endeavor to avoid.” And Meshurat’s smile was still there when more than a second had passed, too. Must be some sort of victory! Vette would take what she could get.

**Author's Note:**

> Self-indulgent "wtf is Meshurat's gender even" exploration, in zer own words in fic form! Because all the times I've tried to just infodump about it myself have felt weird and incomplete. Which, to be fair, this explanation is too, because Meshurat is hardly a historian or culture scholar and doesn't have all the knowledge or framework to talk about zer gender/social role in an anthropological sense, but I think it works better like that when it's from zer own perspective than when it's just me trying to ramble.
> 
> Logistically, I imagine this conversation coming up - not super soon in the course of Meshurat and Vette's friendship, because unlike English I imagine Basic, Tapani, and Sith to all lack grammatical gender, and so there wouldn't be that obvious hurdle to poke at, but. It would definitely end up being relevant at one point or another. (And no "these are my pronouns" conversation here because again, no grammatical gender in any of the languages they're speaking. Sith have their own different stuff going on with how gender operates for them. Muahahaha.)


End file.
